Adjustments
by Vicki595
Summary: Adjusting to life with a baby is never easy.... (Sequel to "Legacy")


Adjustments  
  
  
  
TITLE: "Adjustments"  
  
AUTHOR: Vicki  
  
EMAIL: little_miss_likes_to_fight@hotmail.com  
  
CATEGORY: AU, UST,  
  
SPOILERS: "There But For the Grace of God," "Politics," "Cold Lazarus," my story "Legacy"  
  
SEASON/SEQUEL: Season 1; Sequel to my story "Legacy"  
  
RATING: PG-13  
  
CONTENT WARNINGS:  
  
PAIRING: Sam/Jack UST  
  
SUMMARY: Adjusting to life with a baby is never easy....  
  
STATUS: Complete  
  
ARCHIVE: Archive: SJ yes, Heliopolis yes. All others ask first  
  
DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks was intended. Previously unrecognised characters and places, and this story, are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.  
  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This is my sequel to "Legacy," which seems to be starting off a series of its own. Feedback is not optional – it's a must!  
  
  
  
"She's perfectly healthy Colonel," Janet told him, handing Kathryn back to her father. "It's perfectly natural for a baby to cry!"  
  
"All night though?" Jack asked in dismay. Janet hid a smile. Kathryn had only been at home with Jack overnight, and already he was back, struggling as a single father.  
  
"Maybe she wanted her mother," Janet suggested innocently.  
  
"I should call Carter," Jack declared, hoping that the silence would remain. Kathryn had cried most of the day, only stopping when they had been in the car and returned to the SGC. Now she was looking around her surroundings with wide blue eyes. A nurse noticed her wandering gaze, and smiled and waved at the small girl. Kathryn just buried her head in her father's neck, suddenly shy.  
  
The phone on Janet's desk went off, alarming Kathryn as she jerked her head to look at where the new sound was coming from.  
  
"Frasier," Janet announced, picking up the phone. "Yes sir... of course, sir."  
  
Jack listened to the one-sided conversation with half an ear, more preoccupied with avoiding his daughter's eyes from filling up with tears as he removed his keys from her eager grasp, instead trying to replace them with Janet's stethoscope. The doctor slapped his hand away, giving him a mock warning look.  
  
"I'll tell him sir," Janet finished, putting down the phone. She removed the stethoscope out of Jack's reach before turning to him. "General Hammond wants to see you in the briefing room immediately," she informed him.  
  
"So much for downtime," Jack grumbled, picking up the baby bag he had bought with him. "Come on Kat – let's go see what Grandpa George wants."  
  
"Do you want me to take her?" Janet offered, wondering what the General would say if his 2IC waltzed in with a baby in his arms.  
  
"No, I'm good," Jack replied, readjusting Kathryn's small weight and heading towards the door. "See you later Doc."  
  
Janet just grinned at the pair, before turning back to the reports that O'Neill and his daughter had rudely interrupted.  
  
* * *  
  
"You wanted to see us General?" Jack asked, bouncing Kathryn in his arms as they entered the briefing room.  
  
"I only wanted to see you," Hammond replied, avoiding rolling his eyes as Carter kidnapped the child. "Colonel, we're expecting a visit from Senator Kinsey. He's coming to evaluate the Stargate project."  
  
"So what's wrong with that?" Jack wanted to know. "We're doing a swell job here."  
  
"Senator Kinsey's been concentrating on our operating budget, and what we've been able to bring back through the gate, which isn't much."  
  
Four pairs of eyes travelled to look at the baby sitting on Carter's lap, then back to the General, who sighed.  
  
"The senator believes that what we have achieved in the last year is insufficient. Our allies are mostly less advanced than us, and so far we have yet been unable to trade technologies. Our operating budget is $7.4 billion, and the senator wants to know what we've been spending it on."  
  
"If you don't mind me asking sir, what does the senator's visit have to do with us?" Daniel asked. "We're all on downtime for another two days."  
  
"Senator Kinsey wants to meet some of the personnel here," Hammond explained. "As our number one team, I want you here to argue our case. You've visited the most planets, made the most first contacts, have the most experience with dealing with the Goa'uld."  
  
Jack sighed in exasperation. "What time will the senator be here?" he asked, as though he had a nasty taste in his mouth.  
  
"I want you back here 1400 hours sharp," Hammond told them, getting up to leave. "Colonel, Captain, I'd suggest you find a babysitter."  
  
And with that, he left the briefing room, leaving behind a stunned SG-1.  
  
"How much time?" Jack asked, looking around his team with pride. They were the best; no matter what the senator said.  
  
Daniel glanced down at his watch; his chest constricting as he remembered only a day previously when another Jack had said the same words, minutes before Daniel had essentially sent him to his death. The guilt he had felt then had increased when he had found Kathryn, believing it to be his fault that the little girl was an orphan. However, the look he had seen in the alternate Jack's eyes had been that of a man willing to do anything to save those he loved. Even if it meant dying himself.  
  
"Six hours," the young man replied, thankful that it wasn't the minutes that Doctor Carter had been forced to announce.  
  
"Both Carter and I need to fetch our dress blues," Jack announced. "Danny- boy – you and Teal'c should probably wear something smart, although it doesn't really matter if you can't find anything for the Big Guy. We need to feed Kathryn and find her a babysitter..."  
  
"I'll ask Janet," Sam interrupted, as Daniel reached across to tickle the child. "I'm sure she won't mind."  
  
"Good," Jack declared, rising up from the table and holding his arms out for Kathryn. Sam shook her head, and held the little girl on her hip.  
  
"With all due respect sir, you had her all of last night," the captain told him. "I think it's time she spent a little time with her mother."  
  
"But the car seat's in my car, and all her stuff's at my house," Jack protested, referring to the few belongings that Daniel had brought through the mirror, and what the personnel of the SGC had managed to find the previous night for the already-famous little girl. Jack was obviously already attached to the little girl, that much was clear.  
  
"We can swap the car seat over, and I can go into town for a bit to get her some more things," Sam argued. "We can't continuously swap one set of baby things between your house and my apartment."  
  
Jack conceded that she had a point. "How about we go shopping together?" he suggested, trying to sound casual. "I wanted to pick up some paint and other things for her nursery, because currently it just looks like a junk room."  
  
"I need to sort out my spare room too," Sam confessed. "I cleared out most of the junk last night, but it doesn't look anything like a little girl's room."  
  
Jack briefly entertained a fantasy of him, Sam and Kathryn all living together in his house as a family. "So, shopping then?" he confirmed, pulling himself out of his daydream before Sam did it for him.  
  
Sam nodded. "Yeah, I just want to check with Janet that she's okay with looking after Kathryn while we're talking with the senator."  
  
"Okay come on then," he declared. "We're not going to have a great amount of time, what with collecting our blues and feeding this little one."  
  
"Was she good last night?" Sam wanted to know as they made their way through the grey corridors to the infirmary. Passing airmen smiled at the small child still balanced on the captain's hip, nodding respectfully to their superior officers.  
  
"Fine – apart from the crying," Jack replied. "I'd almost forgotten how much noise they make."  
  
"She seems okay now," Sam observed, adjusting Kathryn on her waist. Jack watched closely for any indication that he could snatch the little girl back.  
  
"Janet suggested that maybe she wanted her mother," he told her. "I hate it when she's right."  
  
Sam just laughed as they entered the infirmary; Janet leaving her office to greet them.  
  
"How did the meeting with Hammond go?" she asked. "Did he object to having Kathryn present?"  
  
"Didn't seem to," Jack replied, looking at the petite CMO. "And let's just say the meeting's cut short our downtime."  
  
"Surely he doesn't want you to go on a mission already!" Janet exclaimed. "Whatever happened to acclimatising you lives with Kathryn? And allowing Daniel time to recover from his injury?"  
  
"Senator Kinsey is coming to Colorado Springs to evaluate the SGC this afternoon," Sam explained. "As the front line team SG-1 get to argue on the entire base's behalf."  
  
"Do you want me to keep an eye on Kathryn while you're with the senator?" Janet asked, knowing that while Hammond may have not minded the little girl being present, Kinsey would find a hundred and one reasons to get rid of her – perhaps permanently from the SGC. The command officer's fraternisation rules were foremost on her mind.  
  
* * *  
  
It was sitting inside a small restaurant in the middle of Colorado Springs that Jack was suddenly struck with the realisation of how much he had missed the companionship of a woman. He was sitting across from Sam, who was manipulating Kathryn into opening her mouth for the incoming spoon. His dark eyes softened as Kathryn threw out a chubby hand, and grabbed a loose blonde strand of hair. Sam dropped the spoon as she tried to prise the hand away.  
  
"I bet this is your genes," she muttered to Jack, who rose to lean over the table to help her.  
  
"Are you and your wife ready to order, sir?" Jack looked up to see a young waitress hovering anxiously nearby, a pad in her hand. "Or do you want me to come back in a minute?"  
  
"I... uh..." Jack stuttered, slightly taken aback at the fact that the young woman had thought that they were married. "I'll have the steak. Rare, with fries."  
  
The waitress nodded, and turned to Sam. "And you ma'am?"  
  
"Grilled chicken breast with fries please," Sam managed to order, still wrestling with the baby, not wanting to hurt her. For a child that was still only nine months old, she sure had a strong grip.  
  
"You know, she's going to be challenging all the boys to arm wrestles in a few years," Jack grinned as he finally freed Sam's hair, and stole Kathryn from her. The little girl grinned and gurgled happily as the proud colonel bounced her on his knee. Sam smiled back at the little girl as she checked herself for any spilt food. Neither noticed the couple on the other side of the restaurant.  
  
"What's up?" He asked, as his partner sighed, and turned away from what all appearances appeared to be a happy family.  
  
"See that man over there?" She asked, nodding in the general direction of the two Air Force officers.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"That's my ex-husband." Sara knew she had surprised her companion, although to his credit it didn't show on his face.  
  
"The one with the child on his lap and the blonde woman?" He confirmed.  
  
"Yes." Sara didn't know what to do. She still loved Jack O'Neill, but she knew that she could never go back to him. When she had been faced with him and his unexplained double at the hospital, she had been surprised to realise that she didn't want to go back to him. She just hadn't realised, until then, that she was no longer in love with him.  
  
Sara recognised her ex-husband's companion as the captain whom she had met at the hospital. She had thought that relationships between officers serving together in the Air Force were forbidden. Jack and this woman – Captain Carter, if she remembered correctly – must have found some way around them, what with the child sitting on his lap.  
  
"Did you know about this?" Her friend, Edward Hawkins asked. She had known Edward when they had been at school together, and had recently run into him on a trip to Tucson. He had just accepted a job offer in Denver, and decided to take Sara up on her offer of lunch together if he was ever in the area.  
  
"No idea," Sara replied, her eyes unintentionally falling to her bare ring finger. The simple gold band had been a comfort to her for so long that even now her hand felt light without it. "I met them briefly at the hospital just under a year ago, and he didn't say anything then. She must have only just had the baby – she certainly wasn't pregnant when I met her."  
  
"They seem happy together," Edward commented, watching the interaction between the two of them. It was clear that they were having an animated discussion while they waited for their food to be brought out to them. He hoped that his statement would bring some comfort to his friend. After he had separated from his wife, he had found it hard to watch her with another man, although he had been pleased that she was happy.  
  
"Yeah," Sara agreed softly, watching as a shy smile spread over the other woman's face. "I'm glad he's found someone else, and he's got another chance to be a father."  
  
"Come on," Edward urged as she toyed with the last of her drink. "I'll walk you to your car."  
  
Sara nodded as she picked up her bag, and let Edward take her arm in a gentlemanly fashion.  
  
"Do you want to talk to him?" Edward asked as the made their way through the tables. The O'Neill family was seated not far from the exit, but Sara and Edward would have been able to leave without being spotted if they so wished.  
  
"No," Sara replied firmly. "He'll have to come and see me if he wants me to know."  
  
Edward acknowledged that with a slight nod of his head, but as they passed behind a waitress, shielding them from Jack, the woman moved.  
  
"Sara?" They heard an incredulous voice ask.  
  
Sara turned around to face her ex-husband and his new family. "Hello Jack."  
  
  
  
* * *  
  
The end!  
  
Feedback please to little_miss_likes_to_fight@hotmail.com  
  
The more I get, the faster I write! (Hint, hint!) 


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